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Posted by: LiNcK
« on: September 11, 2016, 03:24:42 PM »

Bit of a necro but so are most things in this forum. Right now I'm just here procrastinating writing my paper but I'll share my opinion, which can be boiled down to this:

There's also the problem with the forum being flat out boring. There's no drama or huge forum reactions for the most part anymore, it's usually just "oh that's nice" and then you move on with your day.

I came back after hearing about RA3, made a ton of posts about it, got some nostalgia and reinstalled RA2 to try it out. Turns out DSL 2.2 was a thing and that was neat so I went on with it even though it looks like nobody cares about DSL 2.2? Anyways, Serge's amazing Component Freedom kept me around for a bit too since that's what I always wanted. I tried making some DSL-S bots that are more space efficient using that. Then, as always I posted them to my showcase and... ... Nothing... ...

Granted, my bots have always been boring. Since day one I've been making extremely similar popups with one or two halfway novel but useless bots a year so there's really not much to say about what I made when I came back, but still, I used to get pretty good advice and back-and-forth back in 2010 with DSL 2.1. There is really nothing to do here; RA2 has always been pretty bad at actual gameplay so the big thing about it was you showcase your stuff and enter tournaments. Looking at showcases now what you mostly find is "Pretty good" or "That's nice" which at the end of the day boils down to nothing. Tournaments take weeks or months to "pay off" with 2-3 minute videos and a simple "you lost" or "you won" because the battles are just 2 bots charging at each other until one dies. If the host wanted they could just retry until the bot they want to win finally wins and then show that.

Right now there's the Official GTM Tournament going on of which the main attraction (HW) is Retooled. I think its great that we are changing up the meta a little bit but what do we know about Retooled and where can we even talk about it besides the thread in RA2 Modifications? There's no showcases and there's no stuff such as the old posts of wedge testing and such. I actually want to enter the tournament for the heck of it (plus, I want to play RA2 with a purpose) but as far as I know I have nowhere to easily get info on Retooled quirks (if it even has any) or post my stuff to get critique... Even if I dig hard and find out all the info I want to make a good bot will I get anything more than a "Nice"? Because you know I'm going to be making an uninspired-as-hell popup regardless of what mod you throw at me.

There's just nothing much going on unless you're the Naryar, Serge, Mr. AS, etc. types that like to fully dissect the game aside from just playing it or are so bad or creative/novel that you get actual responses to your horrible or weird bot. At least that's my view of the whole thing as a guy that's always just wanted to just play and has always been bad/mediocre at the game and comes back from time to time to try it out (and TBH I was never really big on the community anyways so I'm just talking out of my ass right now really).

Right now my goals with GTM are: Install Retooled. Make a bot. Enter it in the Official GTM Tournament (without knowing if its even good). Disappear.
Maybe I'll get around to actually finishing a team for once (which is what I was doing a couple of months ago until I realized it was pointless) and finally submitting something to NarAI once my bae Naryar starts taking non-replica teams because I've always wanted to do that but never managed. There really is nothing else to do here for me which is why I'm not around...
Posted by: yugitom
« on: August 18, 2016, 07:30:05 PM »

Yeah, that reaction from older builders is what I was banking on. I also just want to keep talks going and constantly remind the forum that it's going to happen (if it does happen.)

Forum pessimists, don't just let mods do the fighting for you. If what I am proposing actually gets off the ground, get stuck in. I really do feel as though, with enough community support, this can keep interest in RA2 going (even if it's just one time a year.)
Posted by: kill343gs
« on: August 18, 2016, 07:24:22 PM »

I think the concerns about a major official tournament not getting a lot of entrants is definitely something to consider, but when I was trying to garner some attention to my league tournament project, I had a lot of people who expressed interest in some form of official competition. I think if we put something together with enough hype behind it, a lot of people would actually be interested. It would get people like me to build something new. My generation, the generation that isn't particularly active as builders anymore because we haven't had a good reason to do so, I think you'd see a lot of us spend some time in the bot lab if something big and official was going on.
Posted by: R01
« on: August 16, 2016, 05:33:09 AM »

the main reason i havent been very active the past few months has been of course irl stuff (i got a job working at a summer camp and that's over now) but even besides that the last time i touched ra2 was like march. the game just doesn't speak to me anymore. between gmod and arc i've had a lot more fun (and freedom) building stuff in gmod and rhino. also those communities arent filled with shi*posters (also why the hell cant we swear on here i feel like i'm in middle school) and children but instead people i can actually discuss the hobby with that are generally cool people to talk to. honestly on gtm now there's like 3 or 4 people total who i can kinda identify with and i dont talk to on another site.

i'd probably come out for another bbeans or clash cubes but other than that idk man i'm just bored of this game
You basically can swear, mods stopped giving a ****
Think the main reason was the site rating on google? As far as I know it's ok as long as you don't use it too much.
Posted by: cephalopod
« on: August 16, 2016, 05:21:30 AM »

I getcha Badnik. I think, personally, it'd be wise for GTM to start drawing a little more attention than previous to the real robotics and games sections.
Posted by: Badger
« on: August 16, 2016, 01:33:57 AM »

the main reason i havent been very active the past few months has been of course irl stuff (i got a job working at a summer camp and that's over now) but even besides that the last time i touched ra2 was like march. the game just doesn't speak to me anymore. between gmod and arc i've had a lot more fun (and freedom) building stuff in gmod and rhino. also those communities arent filled with shi*posters (also why the hell cant we swear on here i feel like i'm in middle school) and children but instead people i can actually discuss the hobby with that are generally cool people to talk to. honestly on gtm now there's like 3 or 4 people total who i can kinda identify with and i dont talk to on another site.

i'd probably come out for another bbeans or clash cubes but other than that idk man i'm just bored of this game
You basically can swear, mods stopped giving a ****
Posted by: Badnik96
« on: August 16, 2016, 12:58:56 AM »

the main reason i havent been very active the past few months has been of course irl stuff (i got a job working at a summer camp and that's over now) but even besides that the last time i touched ra2 was like march. the game just doesn't speak to me anymore. between gmod and arc i've had a lot more fun (and freedom) building stuff in gmod and rhino. also those communities arent filled with shi*posters (also why the hell cant we swear on here i feel like i'm in middle school) and children but instead people i can actually discuss the hobby with that are generally cool people to talk to. honestly on gtm now there's like 3 or 4 people total who i can kinda identify with and i dont talk to on another site.

i'd probably come out for another bbeans or clash cubes but other than that idk man i'm just bored of this game

Posted by: 090901
« on: August 14, 2016, 01:51:57 AM »

massimo we still need to do that retarded human controlled tourney sometime
Posted by: MassimoV
« on: August 14, 2016, 12:09:32 AM »

Alright, I was thinking about this the other day actually.  I know the Battlebots would draw large numbers of bots and excitement from the community in the past.  But I really don't know if I could do it again. The meta-game for IRL right now is kind of fragmented.  With there being both DSL 2.1 and DSL 2.2 coupled along with the fact that Serge released the Ro7 breaker, I don't really know the rules to the IRL game anymore honestly. I think hat's what's slowed down IRL building honestly.
Posted by: toAst
« on: August 13, 2016, 10:41:02 PM »

commentary would be fun i might help. i like the idea of actual online play minus ai as well, i saw that brought up. what keeps coming to mind for me is the aceuplink tournament when the game first came out where bots had their own dedicated little page and w/e with the brackets and whatnot. the inter-forum spar with the four person teams had it's own website completely iirc. what if i create a rival website to run you all into the ground with insanely sick robots in battle. lets go to war ****ers :vista: :dance:
Posted by: frezal
« on: August 13, 2016, 05:18:39 PM »

if retooled get's finished let's do the tourney in that mod like a week after release. There would be no meta and it would be exciting. Have multiple hosts to speed up production, dedicated AI team to get through that phase quickly, and perhaps even commentary.

Putting a tournament on one person's shoulders has been the norm but really it doesn't make sense
Commentary, you say? I would love to do some of that  :confused:
Posted by: Thyrus
« on: August 13, 2016, 03:54:20 PM »

I would love to see a small tournament of well build bots where each bot gets some attention before the tournament like the real battlebots. Would be interesting to see how that evolves over time
Posted by: Serge
« on: August 13, 2016, 03:50:03 PM »

words

Eh, she's all right mate. The proof is in the pudding - we're still here a good 13 years after the game's release.

Don't take things too seriously.
Posted by: Badger
« on: August 13, 2016, 03:03:58 PM »

I'm happy to help with hosting or to host the whole thing if it would help, you know I'm fast with my AI and videos so it wouldn't be an issue.
Posted by: yugitom
« on: August 13, 2016, 02:59:10 PM »

if retooled get's finished let's do the tourney in that mod like a week after release. There would be no meta and it would be exciting. Have multiple hosts to speed up production, dedicated AI team to get through that phase quickly, and perhaps even commentary.

Putting a tournament on one person's shoulders has been the norm but really it doesn't make sense
That's actually a really good idea. I've started to work with AS already, so I'll see what I could arrange.

In terms of having a hosting team, I'm not too sure if it's necessary. Even though one would be receiving a lot more entries than your average tournament, you're not receiving them in bulk and shouldn't be that big of a job for one man. I'm not entirely against the idea but I may need a bit of convincing to have one.